Powering performance

Nutrition is a vital part of performance – while the right diet doesn’t guarantee a win, the wrong diet ensures you won’t! Experts at Dengie explain how to fuel your horse for success

FEEDING YOUR HORSE isn’t simply a case of supplying energy and nutrients to meet the demands of exercise, it’s vital for supporting their health and well-being, too. But things can go wrong if the diet isn’t right for the digestive system – this is why fibre is so important. Fibre feeds provide your horse with energy for work in a slow-release form and help to keep their digestive system healthy – after all, fibre is what horses were designed to eat. Weight for weight, fibre feeds take about three times longer to chew than cereal-based feeds. This helps to produce more saliva to counteract excess acidity in his gut. Cereals, on the other hand, contain high levels of starch, which is broken down into sugar that may cause peaks and troughs in energy levels. This can result in unpredictable behaviour but there is a solution. Alfalfa and oil can provide the same amount of energy as cereal-based feeds but contain much lower levels of sugar and starch. Alfalfa also provides good quality protein, which is essential for muscle development and repair, and is rich in vitamins and minerals.

Added oil for added oomph

Oil, which is energy dense, makes an ideal addition to your horse’s diet if they’re working hard and need extra energy. It has the added bonus of promoting condition, healthy skin and coat shine. Dengie Alfa-A Oil is a pure alfalfa feed with a rapeseed oil coating and has the same energy level (12.5MJ/kg) as a competition mix or cube, but with much lower levels of sugar and starch – about 10 times less (see our chart below). It’s ideal for fizzy horses or those prone to muscle problems, contains no cereal grains and is free from molasses and preservatives.